JUDGING SUNSET

Billboards on the Sunset Strip are as much about pop culture as advertising, so it's little surprise that a funky mix of personalities has been assembled from around the country and across the pond to judge the inaugural West Hollywood Sunset Strip Billboard Awards. Judging what is always an eclectic mix of on-the-mark and over-the-top boards beckoning travelers on the legendary 1.6-mile Strip will be: outdoor ad expert David Bernstein of Kelland Communications, London; Robbie Conal, the Venice, Calif.-based guerrilla poster artist whose sardonic work is a staple of L.A.'s streets; Rick Colby of Colby Effler & Partners, L.A.; Rob Jackson of Adams Outdoor, Kalamazoo, Mich.; Diane Cimine of the New York-based Outdoor Advertising Association of America; and Michael Haibach of the West Hollywood Fine Arts Commission. The event itself, scheduled for July 13 at the Hyatt on Sunset, should be at least as iconoclastic and funkadelic as its colorful panel of judges. Presenting will be glitterati gal Downtown Julie Brown and rock legend Little Richard, who knows as much as anyone about how to get attention in public. --Jack Feuer

Billboards on the Sunset Strip are as much about pop culture as advertising, so it's little surprise that a funky mix of personalities has been assembled from around the country and across the pond to judge the inaugural West Hollywood Sunset Strip Billboard Awards. Judging what is always an eclectic mix of on-the-mark and over-the-top boards beckoning travelers on the legendary 1.6-mile Strip will be: outdoor ad expert David Bernstein of Kelland Communications, London; Robbie Conal, the Venice, Calif.-based guerrilla poster artist whose sardonic work is a staple of L.A.'s streets; Rick Colby of Colby Effler & Partners, L.A.; Rob Jackson of Adams Outdoor, Kalamazoo, Mich.; Diane Cimine of the New York-based Outdoor Advertising Association of America; and Michael Haibach of the West Hollywood Fine Arts Commission. The event itself, scheduled for July 13 at the Hyatt on Sunset, should be at least as iconoclastic and funkadelic as its colorful panel of judges. Presenting will be glitterati gal Downtown Julie Brown and rock legend Little Richard, who knows as much as anyone about how to get attention in public. --Jack Feuer